Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/87

Rh patriot as well as a good soldier, and he gracefully acquiesced. General Stuart was a great favorite with the army, and it was thought he could best restore the confidence suffered from Jackson's loss. Any further attack for the night was abandoned.

While General Jackson's movement and attack had been a great success in the way of surprise, and the rout of the 11th corps with the capture of a number of guns and prisoners had been complete, the result was on the whole disappointing. The heights at Fairview still frowned upon the Confederates and time was now given to reinforce and strengthen these. Another hour of daylight would undoubtedly have swept Jackson into Chancellorsville with as little resistance as he had encountered up to the time when night overtook him. When Lane drew back his right wing, Ruger reoccupied his old position, but Knipe in making an effort to do the same thing came in contact with Lane's left, and in the darkness this led to much confusion and several collisions. The 128th Pennsylvania regiment which blundered into his lines was made captive along with its Colonel. Williams finding he could not reoccupy his old works on the Plank road, now took up a new line through the woods in front of the ravine near Fairview connecting with the left of Berry's division of the 3d corps, and the night was passed in throwing up defences of logs and earth along the whole of the new line.

It was a bad night for both sides. Commands were groping in the dark to find the positions assigned them, and struggling groups were wandering around in search of their commands. Alarms were frequent. Intermittent flashes of musketry burst out and threw a glare over the forest, and the guns from Fairview opened at intervals. The unpleasantness of the situation was intensified by a midnight attack from the direction of Hazel Grove by Sickles with two brigades, designed to drive Lane from his position and occupy the Rank road. In making his attack Sickles formed Ward's and Hayman's brigades in echelon, one behind the other, each company marching in column of fours, at deploying intervals, with fixed bayonets, and under orders not to fire until the Plank road was reached. When the column was put in motion it penetrated the interval between the